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Online Brand Marketing - 4 Ways to Use Social Media in Promotions
by Enzo F. Cesario
Social Networking Articles
Published on this site: September 1st, 2010 - See
more articles from this month
Social media marketing has earned its place as one of the
fastest-growing, most competitive marketing fields in the history
of advertising. People are gathering online in record numbers,
finding and socializing in groups that cater to their interests;
often, these interests neatly intersect with marketing and
branding opportunities. The best social media tools combine
simplicity with an extensive reach, allowing messages to target
thousands of people in seconds, thus serving as an outstanding
tool of brand promotion.
Briefly, here are a few of the more interesting and simple ways
you can use social media to arrange a short-term promotion for
your brand.
- Flash Mob:
A flash mob is an impromptu gathering of people arranged by SMS.
Originally popular on message boards, the advent of texting and
SMS powerhouses like Twitter has made flash mobs even easier to
arrange. In the simplest terms, the originator of the mob sends a
message to his audience, arranging a time, place and theme for a
quick meeting and/or performance. Famous mobs have included
zombie walks, unannounced pillow fights at major business centers
and other assorted fun events.
As an example of using a flash mob for a brand, consider the
following scenario: You own a café with a respectable Twitter
following. You tweet out a time and place - say 2 p.m. in the
park - and a short promotion code like ParkFrap. When everyone
arrives, you're waiting with a selection of your newest frappe
drinks, and everyone who can give you a copy of the code gets a
drink and a coupon for the next time they drop by the café.
This kind of arrangement takes a bit of preparation, of course,
but the idea creates instant buzz, sticks out in people's minds
and can be an enjoyable time for everyone.
- Couponing:
People like to save money, and businesses like to make it. If
your brand is tied into a business that offers product, you've
probably already considered how to go about offering coupons to
people. Social media offer many avenues to getting coupons out to
people. Again, Twitter is an excellent tool here; in fact, there
are several sites out there that are tailored to helping use
Twitter for couponing. For example, http://twtqpon.com allows you
to combine a short tweet and an image into a coupon for your
customers.
However, Facebook is also a good tool for distributing coupons.
If your brand has a Facebook group associated with it - and if it
doesn't, why not? - you can leverage the service as both a
coupon and a promotional tool. For example, post a message with a
new coupon that's only valid if a follower brings a friend
along. In this one step, you get two people into the store, sell
some product and have a chance to sign up a new follower on
Facebook.
- Cross Promote:
Sometimes you don't necessarily have a large following of your
own. This is obviously the case in brands that are just
developing their online identity. They've signed up for the
various social media services, but haven't really gotten a big
splash together.
This is where research and legwork come in. Let's continue with
the coffee shop analogy, since cafés seem to be a defining
feature of the modern set. You could look up a group that tends
to associate with cafés, such as writers. If you find a local
writing group on Facebook for your area, consider posting a
friendly message on their board, inviting them to come in for a
weekly "writer's day" in which members of your newly-formed
writing club get a discount.
Remember, of course, the key rules of social media: be polite and
respectful. These are people you're talking to, people with
their own agendas and desires, and they can sense insincerity
like a shark smells blood in the water. Your offers must be
interesting and credible.
- Picture Perfect:
Images are powerful things. A well-done image can excite the
imagination and catch peoples' attention in a way that text
sometimes fails to grasp. Consider sending images designed to
give people an association with your brand.
Returning a final time to our café example, consider taking a
picture of some fresh cinnamon rolls that just came out of the
oven and quickly uploading them to your preferred social media
service. This requires a bit of work to make sure the picture
looks appetizing and appealing, but isn't too difficult. Post
that picture up along with a message about how they come with a
free cup of coffee between 10 a.m. and noon, and you just might
have a rush on your hands.
Even if you don't have mouth-wateringly delicious pastries to
offer, any brand benefits from visual associations. When you go
to make a post in your blog or SMS, include a link to a relevant
picture as often as you can. This will help people associate your
brand with colorful thinking, with interesting things to look at,
and the like. Text can appear awfully drab, so do what you can to
brighten it up a bit.
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist
and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content
agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos
and social media in the "voice" of our client's
brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more
recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to
http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at
http://www.iBrandCasting.com/.
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